Halo: Combat Evolved, or simply Halo, is a video game in the first-person shooter (FPS) genre, created by the Microsoft-owned Bungie Studios. It was released for the Xbox game console on November 15, 2001.

Introduction

Halo is a killer app for the Xbox, considered by many to be that platform's "must-have" game. Many consider Halo to be one of the best first-person shooters of all time. For example, the usually harsh Edge magazine gave it a full score of ten out of ten. Nevertheless, Halo has its weaknesses; some criticise its gameplay as too repetitive.

Prior to Bungie's takeover by Microsoft, the initial release of Halo was planned for the Mac OS and Windows platforms; in fact, the game was first previewed at the Macworld Conference & Expo, New York, in 1999. It was also originally planned as a real-time strategy game.

Following the takeover, Halo was released exclusively for Microsoft's Xbox game console on November 15, 2001.

Almost two years later on September 30, 2003 a port of Halo for Windows was released, followed by a release for Mac OS X on December 11, 2003.

In the Windows version, however, some problems existed, largely stemming from its porting. While the plot and content remained the same, certain segments of the population had trouble with framerate issues. Most of the issues, however, were caused by users who used detail settings from other games as a starting point for Halo's settings. When detail settings (many barely noticeable when active) were removed or lessened, framerates typically rose to acceptable levels.

Gameplay

Summary

Halo's gameplay is characterized by several features which set it apart from less acclaimed first-person shooter games:

• Storyline execution: Halo's gameplay and storyline have been known to be tightly interwoven, and delivered in a convincing manner which is consistent with the flow of the game.

• Vehicles: Halo incorporates many vehicles into its single and multiplayer games, including flying ones.

• Weapons system: Halo's weapons system is unusual in two respects. First, it allows one to carry only two weapons at any given time, forcing the player to switch weapons often and make trade-offs when choosing which weapons to carry. Second, Halo has an independent button for throwing grenades.

• Artificial intelligence: Halo's AI was quite sophisticated for its time. For example, the more cowardly types of enemies would panic when one of their superiors was killed. If a speeding vehicle came at them, they could dive out of the way, and they could take cover from explosives or suppressive fire.

Movement and aiming

Movement in Halo is similar to other first-person shooters, allowing the player to move forwards, backwards, and strafe left and right independently of their aim. On the Xbox, strafing and aiming are normally separated between the two analog sticks; and on the PC, between the mouse and the keyboard.

Halo also allows the player to crouch and jump, although jumping from a high ledge will often result in death.

Damage system

• Health: The player in Halo has a finite, non self-regenerating health which can be fully restored by picking up health-packs. Running completely out of health will result in death, but having lower health does not impede player actions. A player's health can only be reduced if his shields have failed.

• Shields: The player carries a shield which protects all parts of his body from damage. The shield will decrease in strength every time it is hit by a weapon, and will fail after taking enough hits, but will quickly regenerate if the player is not attacked for a short period of time. The shield represents a marked departure from most first-person shooters, in which one's health bar is basically augmented by picking up "armor," and it is entirely possible, in the single-player campaign at least, to simply not have enough health points to survive the next section of gameplay. Halo players, on the other hand, have a more-or-less permanent buffer of health at their disposal (assuming they manage to find time to regenerate the shield), making it less of a disaster to take hits in combat.

Powerups

There are three types of powerups available in Halo:

• Health packs: Fully restore the health of the player.
• Active camouflage: Drastically reduces the player's visibility for a period of time, making all but a faint outline of him transparent. This effect is reduced if the player is hit by weapons fire or if he or she fires a weapon or throws a grenade.
• Overshield: An enhanced, non-regenerating shield which is three times the strength of the normal one. The overshield functions on top of the regular shield - when it is active, the normal shield does not take damage. In the single player game, the overshield is reduced only when the player is hit, while in the multiplayer game, it also weakens gradually with time. (see MJOLNIR MARK V battle suit)

Allies/Enemies

Three factions of allies/enemies are encountered on Halo: the Covenant, the Flood, and the Forerunner Sentinels.

• Covenant: The Covenant, led by Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice Orna'Fulsamee, the future Arbiter from Halo 2 (even though he is not mentioned and doesn't appear in the first game), appear to be an alliance of different species, including the cowardly Grunts, the weak Jackals with their visible energy shields, the Elites with their personal energy shields (some can be invisible), and the huge, tough Hunters with strong armour. The Covenant mostly carry plasma weapons of varying power. However, you cannot take the energy swords that the Commander and Stealth Elites carry or the fuel rod cannons the Hunters and Spec-Op Grunts hold. They also make extensive use of vehicles.

• The Flood: The parasitic Flood led by a "command" form, an offshoot of Gravemind who was once UNSC Pillar of Autumn Resistance Captain Jacob Keyes are encountered in 3 forms: the lowly parasitic spores themselves, which usually die from a single shot; walking forms of former humans and Covenant whose nervous systems have been taken over by the parasite, which are tough and may carry either human or Covenant weapons; and exploding carriers, which cause splash damage and release spores.

• Forerunner Sentinels: The Sentinels, led by the probe 343 Guilty Spark, are hovering robotic drones, and (as your ally) will attack Flood, Covenant, and (after the level Two Betrayals as your enemy) the Master Chief. Although possessing a powerful beam weapon, they are not particularly resistant to damage.

Weapons

See the main article List of weapons in Halo: Combat Evolved

Vehicles

See the main article List of vehicles in the Halo universe.

Environments

Halo features a wide variety of environments in which combat occurs, including the human starship Pillar of Autumn, the Covenant ship Truth and Reconciliation, ancient buildings on Halo itself, and vast outdoor expanses of varying climates, including the temperate lands of the levels The Silent Cartographer and Halo, the desert in the first half of the level Truth and Reconciliation, the winter wasteland of the levels Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals, and the spooky forests and swamps of the level 343 Guilty Spark. Six of the ten levels feature a substantial amount of combat outdoors.

Multiplayer

16 players can play together in one Halo game over a local area network, using four Xboxes that have been connected through an Ethernet hub. The game's seamless support for this type of play, as well as a few large maps that can comfortably hold up to 16 combatants, is a first for console games. The PC version of Halo adds online play, and also new vehicles (the Banshee which previously only featured in single-player, and a version of the Warthog which features a tri-barrel rocket launcher) and weapons (the Fuel Rod Cannon, sported by the spec-ops grunts on the last level, and the never seen before Flamethrower) for multiplayer.

Blood Gulch is one of the most commonly played multiplayer levels. The level contains two buildings at either end of the level, with open desert in between. Some of the features include a cave, in which experienced players may store vehicles, and cliffs that players can use to snipe their opponents. This level is also the location for the situation comedy Red Vs Blue. The level reappeared in the sequel, Halo 2, under the name Coagulation, although many of its features are similar if not identical.

Backround

Halo is considered to be the game that "made" the X-Box. The former most popular game out for X-box, Halo is a FPS (first person shooter), in which you play the role of Master Chief. Master Chief commonly known as MS is a man in a robotic suit that has rechargeable shields and heavy amour. Although Halo has an impressive campaign, (single player mode), it is most popular for its multiplayer function. One of the first games to take advantage of the “system link” function has made Halo a huge hit. This allowed up a player to hook a max of four X-box’s together at the same time and play with 16 other people. There are many multiplayer game types including CTF, Team Death Match, Death Match, Assault, Oddball, and many more. The game is relatively simple compared to other FPS’s. With a weapon count of only 8 weapons not including grenades and other weapons that are only found in campaign its proof that simplicity is key in a good game. Also with Xbox live, you can play anyone from anywhere that you want.

Storyline

Halo's storyline is linear; there is only one ending (in contrast to other first person shooters such as Deus Ex). It is presented to the player through an instruction manual, scripted events and conversations during the game, and a number of cut-scenes rendered using the game's graphics engine. This method of storyline delivery is common among modern video games.

Brief summary

Halo, like previous Bungie releases such as the Marathon series, has an intricate plot.

The "Halo" in the title refers to an enormous (approximately 10,000 kilometers in diameter) artificial space habitat similar to a Culture Orbital discovered by the warship Pillar of Autumn. The central character, the Master Chief Spartan-117, is aboard this vessel at the start of the game. With the help of his fellow marines and the ship's artificial intelligence, Cortana, the Master Chief discovers some of the secrets of Halo while fighting off members of the Covenant, archenemies of humanity who, presumably, wish to find Halo's secrets for themselves.

Backstory

The events which transpire in Halo's gameplay must be understood in the context of its backstory, created by Bungie and elaborated in several novels written after the release of the game. A summary of this backstory is presented below.

Unreleased Macworld 1999 and E3 2000 versions of Halo

The Player is a Marine Recon Unit of the Human Empire. Pursued by Alien Covenant ships, the Human ship is destroyed and crashes on Halo and the player must defeat Humankind's sworn enemy through a Guerilla war over air, land, and sea above and below the surface of Halo.

Early Conflicts

In the years 2160-2200, various governments and factions fought for control of Earth and its first Colonies. As overpopulation and unrest on Earth mounted, new political movements formed including the Jovian Frieden and Koslovics led by Vladimir Koslov, resurgences of Fascism and Communism which waged the Interplanetary and Rain Forest Wars Campaign and Mars clashes and were defeated by the United Nations Space Command.

Other conflicts include the Hydra System massacres.

The human colonization of the Orion Arm

In the years 2170-2291, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) successfully develop humanity's first faster than light drive, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. For the first time in history, the rapid colonization of other worlds is made possible. By 2390, 210 worlds have been occupied by humans, and are being actively terraformed to suit man's needs. These worlds are to become known as the Inner Colonies. By 2490, the UNSC's fledging Interstellar Empire has expanded to over 800 planets throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. During this period, the planet Reach becomes one of the two headquarters of the UNSC military and government ( the other was Earth itself), and is destined to become the most heavily fortified world under human control and the Inner Colonies became the heart of the United Nations Imperial Government

In addition, there were brushfire wars in the Outer Colonies in which Rebel Insurrections including the one at the Eridanus System led by Colonel Robert Watts were suppressed.

The Covenant Wars begin

On February 3, 2525, first contact is made with an alliance of alien races that refers to itself as The Covenant. On that day, a single Covenant Warship exterminated the surface population of the Outer Colony of Harvest. Three UNSC battleships and a Colonial Military Adminstration scout ship, the Argo, are sent to investigate this incident, engage the Covenant ship in battle, and are subsequently routed. Only one, the Heracles, manages to return to Reach badly damaged. By December of the same year, the UNSC has mobilized a massive fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Preston Cole, with orders to reclaim the Harvest Colony and stop the Covenant advance.

They also captured a few Covenant troops.

Covenant ships possess several technological features which make them far superior to their human counterparts. First, they have superior manuvering and tracking abilities when employing faster than light travel (ships in Halo, like many other science fiction titles, achieve faster than light speeds by moving through an alternate realm. In Halo it is called "Slipspace").

Covenant and humanity use essentially the same technologies to enter Slipspace, but the Covenant are unaware that their engines can be used much more precisely than their human's counterparts.

Second, Covenant ships possess strong recharging shields which must be destroyed in order to physically damage the ship. This is quite difficult, as they can withstand a near-direct nuclear explosion.

Third, Covenant ships employ more powerful weapons, including a form of guided plasma which can often destroy human vessels in a single hit. It should be noted that the Covenant also use plasma to exterminate the surface population of a planet (a process known as 'glassing').

The fall of the Outer Colonies

Cole's fleet manages a victory at Harvest, but at a high cost - two thirds of his ships are destroyed. Despite significant tactical brilliance on the part of Human commanders, Covenant technology guarantees a four to one kill/loss ratio in most battles. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall below the onslaught, and by 2535, virtually all have been destroyed.

The Cole Protocol

Quoted from Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 135:

"To safeguard the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intact navigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers.

If any Covenant forces are detected:

1. Activate selective purge of databases on all shipbased and planetary data networks.

2. Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized.

3. Execute viral data scavengers. (Download from UNSCTTP://EPWW.COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091)

4. If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectors NOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center.

5. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC ships MUST self-destruct.

Violation of this directive will be considered an act of TREASON, and pursuant to UNSC Military Law Articles JAG-845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution."

Unfortunately it eventually fails, and Earth is invaded in Halo 2, but it led humanity to Halo.

The SPARTAN Project

Several decades before contact with the Covenant was made, the UNSC military embarked on a secret project to create a group of elite soldiers that would deal with occasional unrest in the Colonies. Codenamed SPARTANs, these genetically enhanced troops were trained from the age of six into a life of battle, and became a great asset against the Covenant. While humans suffered defeat after defeat in space, they could almost always prevail with the help of the SPARTANs in ground engagements. The main character of Halo's gameplay, the Master Chief, is a veteran SPARTAN.

Covenant's equivalent of the Spartans in Halo 2 are the Arbiters.

All SPARTANS were given special armour designated MJOLNIR, which can increase their strength and speed. They were the only ones who could wear it, as those without the proper SPARTAN body training or body augmentations (like the SPARTAN upgrades) killed themselves with strength enhanced convulsions.

The Battle of Reach

By 2552, many of Humanity's Inner Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant (although they were routed at Sigma Octanus IV). In a move of desparation, UNSC orders a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using a SPARTAN task force and find the coordinates of their home planet. A group of SPARTANs, led by the Master Chief, are chosen for this mission, and board a specially outfitted Halcyon-class cruiser, the Pillar of Autumn, under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes. This plan, however, is interrupted when the Covenant launch a surprise attack on the fortress world of Reach via automated probe attached to the UNSC Iroquois, but that planned mission finally began in Halo 2 only after Earth was attacked.

During this battle, half of Reach is overrun and glassed, and the human fleet is obliterated. Worse still, the master chief thinks that all of the SPARTANs but himself are killed on the surface of the planet (the SPARTANs are revealed to have survived in Halo: First Strike). The last remaining SPARTAN, the Master Chief, escapes with the Pillar of Autumn. In accordance with the Cole Protocol, the Autumn makes a blind slipspace jump, and emerges in the vicinity of an unexplored and remarkable world.

Arrival at Halo

The Pillar of Autumn exits slipspace to find a mysterious ring shaped moon orbiting a gas giant. The ring, called "Halo" by the Covenant, is obviously artificial and teeming with life. A Covenant fleet, however, is also present, and a subsequent battle heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Captain Keyes initiates the Cole protocol - all records of Earth's location are erased, and the Autumn is crash landed onto Halo. The ship's AI construct, Cortana, leaves the Autumn with the Master Chief in an escape pod which also crash lands on Halo.

Gameplay begins in earnest with the Master Chief's escape from the Autumn, and continues upon landing. The player will soon discover the origins and purpose of this world - and uncover a threat that forces even the Covenant into retreat.

As a literary sidenote, the design of "Halo" borrows heavily from the ring-shaped Culture Orbitals of Iain M. Banks.

Characters

See the main article Halo characters

In-game plot

The first levels of the game deal with an attempt to reach Halo's control center to uncover its purpose. It is soon discovered that the Covenant have accidentally released the "Flood", a parasitic race which gets its name from the way it devastates potential hosts with sheer numbers. The Flood then sweep across Halo and devastate human and Covenant forces positioned on it. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric Artificial Intelligence responsible for monitoring and maintaining the ringworld's systems, to try to activate Halo's defense system, a pulse weapon that, when fired, would wipe out all life in the galaxy large enough to be hosts for the Flood. Technically, that installation only has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but the pulse would trigger other installations as well, effectively killing all life in the galaxy. This system is designed to stop the Flood from spreading through the universe if they escape confinement from Halo by the only way possible: starving the Flood of any life source large enough to sustain them.

Naturally, this would wipe out Humanity as well, and so the final levels of the game revolve around the Master Chief's attempts to destroy Halo before it fires.

The game leaves the story open to further developments, with the revelation that there are most likely several Halo ringworlds in the galaxy, due to Halo being numbered "Installation 04" by a robot named 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor of the installation. (It is revealed in Halo 2 that there were 7 Halos before Installation 04's destruction.)

Books

As of 2004, three books have been written based in the Halo universe.

• Halo: The Fall of Reach is a prequel to the game, written by Eric Nylund.
• Halo: The Flood is an adaptation of the game's story by William C. Dietz.
• Halo: First Strike is the story between the first game and its sequel, Halo 2, by Eric Nylund.

Future developments

The next episode in the Halo story, Halo 2, was released on November 9, 2004. [1] (http://www.bungie.net/News/Story.aspx?link=5B522E9E-A265-409E-9267-EB2EDCFD50B4) Like the previous fan-beloved Marathon, Halo 2 has a return of old characters and new technology in attempt to further a complicated plot line, the object of which is to be deciphered by the end.

A free mod for the computer game series Battlefield 1942/Vietnam called Homefront features Halo-esque and original content for online multiplayer games with up to 64 players.

Not only this mod, but many, can be found at various sites on the Internet at places like halomods.com, halocity.org and more. The customizable map option has become quite popular with the downloadable custom edition of the PC version, many maps can be found on these sites, ready to be opened and played. These maps can be made with 3D Studio MAX.

HaloGen is a mod for Command and Conquer, Generals. It turns Halo into a RTS. Look around! It's cool!

External links

• Official site (http://halo.bungie.net)
• Official Xbox.com site (http://www.xbox.com/en-us/halo/default.htm)
• Haloplanet.com (http://www.haloplanet.com) Popular "Halo" fansite
• MobyGames' entry on Halo (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,5368/)
• Halo.Bungie.Org (http://halo.bungie.org) Halo fansite and resource center
• Halo Story Page (http://halosm.bungie.org) Fan-maintained site dedicated to the discussion of the Halo story.
• Subnova.com (http://www.subnova.com/halopc/) Halo information & FAQs
• Red VS Blue (http://www.redvsblue.com/) - Machinima using the Halo engine
• Halo for Mac OS X (http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2003/11/halo/)
• Halo Wiki (http://wiki.blackboxrepublic.com), a MediaWiki site dedicated to everything Halo.
• Halo Editing Wiki (http://www.halowiki.com)
• Halo Quidditch (http://www.geocities.com/dbusnipe/absolute_truth/quidditch.htm)
• List of weapons in the Halo universe